


Undertaking

by Ailette



Category: New Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Imported, M/M, mentions of Civil War and its consequences, pre-Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-15
Updated: 2008-09-15
Packaged: 2018-06-05 02:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6686173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Tony say good-bye, to more than they are aware of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Undertaking

The bed was a complete mess, one pillow on the window sill while the other was hidden by the sheets now half lying on the floor. Red silk boxers lay beneath the bed, their owner just shrugging and putting the trousers on as he couldn’t find them again. Steve’s dog tags were glinting in the light of the last sunrays slipping through the blinds, hastily hung over one of the bed posts earlier. If anyone were to enter the room now, there would be no way to explain their way out of the obvious, but they had become careful enough to not panic about the little things anymore. Tony generally didn’t care a lot about things like this (what else where the maids for, now that he was in a serious relationship?), but now he couldn’t even spare a single thought for anything that wasn’t about Steve Rogers, the man pressed up against him from head to toe.  


Their kiss was slow, only a pale echo of the earlier lust and passion resurfacing. But it was special in its own way, telling things that had stopped being necessary reassurances a long time ago, but still making them just as clear and loud and beautiful. Steve’s hands ran softly through Tony’s tousled hair, a feeble attempt to bring it back to its earlier perfect form until he gave it up and just twirled one of the longer strands in his fingers. After a few more seconds had ticked by, he gently tugged on it to get Tony’s attention to something else.  


“I really have to go now, love,” he whispered against Tony’s lips, not actually taking any actions in this respect or moving away from the man in his arms.  


“I don’t want you to.” Tony was aware of the whining tone, was even using it deliberately to make sure Steve understood just how much he wanted him to stay. He could feel the answering smile on his cheek.  


“But you’ll have to go soon, too. They’re waiting for you at Stark Enterprises. Peter is also waiting.”  


Tony sighed, head leaning against Steve’s shoulder. “I know, I know. Everyone and their dog is waiting for me. Can’t we just have a few more moments for us? There is always something that’s calling at least one of us away.”  


“Comes with the job,” was Steve’s amused reply, but his hold on Tony tightened even as he said it. They might love being heroes. They might love being able to save people, to save the world, to help make it better for the future. But, it was hard to remember that even though that love wasn’t as strong as the one they shared with each other, it was every bit as important. Someone, somewhere, might lose the one they loved if they forgot their duties; spent just a few minutes more together when they were needed elsewhere. Steve recalled this, imagined losing Tony just for someone else’s happiness, hung on to the heart-wrenching pain for as long as it took him to go back out there and fight the good fight. After all, Tony would still be there when he came back. And nothing beat the feeling of knowing he preserved the bliss he felt surging through his entire body as soon as he saw Tony upon his return for someone else. That there were more people allowed to bath in this kind of fortune.  


Slowly, he disentangled himself from Tony, letting his hands run over his love’s arms as he did so, conserving the touch as long as possible. He had to look terrible sappy, but Tony’s lips just curved into a soft smile at the gesture, turning his palms upward to entwine their fingers shortly before finally letting go.  


“I’ll see you tonight,” Steve said and turned to unlock the door. He’d nearly reached the elevator when Tony’s voice stopped him again.  


“Steve! Steve, wait. You forgot,” Tony came to a halt before him. Only after he’d checked the floor behind and above him for their teammates, he continued, “your dog tags at the bed post. Here.”  


Steve considered the little metal plates as Tony slipped them into his hand for a few passing moments, before a wicked smile began to tug at the corners of his mouth. He opened the clasp and held them up, looking at them for one more second before laying them around Tony’s neck, half embracing him as he locked the clasp again. Satisfied, he leaned back to contemplate his doing.  


Tony looked down at them then up again to meet Steve’s eyes. “I can’t wear them. The others might see.”  


“So let them.” Tony’s face brightened at the words, enough so for Steve to finally say what he’d wanted to say since they’d first gotten together. “Better yet, let’s tell them. Let’s tell them as soon as I get back.”  


He held his breath as Tony cast his eyes downward. But when he could see them again, they were suspiciously brilliant as they gazed into his own. “You know I love you, right? But if you don’t go now, there will be no more need to tell anyone, because I’ll be kissing the life out of you and won’t care if anyone sees us.”  


Steve laughed at that, the sound strong and pure in the sterile interior of the elevator. “I’ll take these back tonight.”  


“Be prepared to fight for them,” Tony yelled after him, as the doors slid shut. Still smiling, he turned around, making a beeline for his room. If he got dressed now and then hurried with the board thing, got Mrs. Rennie to hold off some meetings and ‘accidentally’ deleted some of the less important ones via Extremis before he called her, he should be home at the same time as Steve. Starting with the cleaning of this day’s schedule, he switched the connection to the digital outside world inside his head back on. Even though the filter was active, he was immediately confronted with fourteen streaming videos, all reporting the same explosion. In a place called  Stamford .  


He didn’t know it then, but Steve would never come back to demand his dog tags back. He would never stop wearing them until the day he died, taking the last bit of Steve and their secret with him into the grave.

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/22848.html)  
> Beta: freakydarling


End file.
